In my late twenties I had developed chronic back pain. I couldn’t walk, stand, even lean without being in pain. The constancy of it meant I had not slept properly for years. This was, however, my norm. So too was my inability to take much emotional distress before I erupted in a temper or melted into an emotional mess! I had, as the phrase goes “had it up to here!” [imagine my salute style hand touching the top of my forehead].
Was I an emotional erratic?
Was I a bad tempered person?
Would I have been described as having a volatile personality?
Quite possibly! But was that an accurate evaluation of the person I am?
No.
What effect then, this lack of physical activity? Speak to anyone who would describe them self as active and ask them how they feel if they can’t get to the gym. They will tell you they feel grouchy, lethargic, lazy and frustrated. If an injury suddenly stops them in their tracks they also feel the dreaded hand of time too….they are getting older, they are not infallible etc etc
So was there really a sudden change in Henry’s personality?
As Claire Ridgway argued, in a recent talk given the our ‘Discover the Tudors’ tour group (click here to see what the tour group got up to), Henry showed callous and unrelentingly selfish behaviour on plenty of occasions prior to 1536. For example, the horrendous mass killing of the Carthusian monks of the Charterhouse monastery in 1535, also in 1535 the executions of More and Fisher, men loyal to the king, and the cold treatment of his daughter and wife of over 20 years.
